Three Pillars of a Pluralist Society : Goodwill, Tolerance and Brotherhood -“A Secure pluralistic society requires communities that are educated and confident both in the identity and depth of their own traditions and in those of their neighbors.” – Aga Khan. Any society of the world consists of people, individual, community, race or groups having different beliefs, faith, ideologies, and views. For pluralist society it is not only the matter of Los beliefs, faith, or ideologies, but also the matter or choice of food they eat, choice of clothes they wear and how to wear, types of drinks, structure of houses, living style, language, customs, practices - and many other such things. Earlier it was easy for a society to continue with limited ideas, thought and views because there was less migration. But in the time of globalization and concept of global village; it is not possible for any society to sustain with particular or limited specific practices or views, and so constitute a pluralist society.
Three Pillars of a Pluralist Society : Goodwill, Tolerance and Brotherhood
“A Secure pluralistic society requires communities that are
educated and confident both in the identity and depth of their own traditions
and in those of their neighbors.” – Aga Khan
Any society of the world consists of people, individual, community,
race or groups having different beliefs, faith, ideologies, and views. For
pluralist society it is not only the matter of Los beliefs, faith, or
ideologies, but also the matter or choice of food they eat, choice of clothes
they wear and how to wear, types of drinks, structure of houses, living style,
language, customs, practices - and many other such things. Earlier it was easy
for a society to continue with limited ideas, thought and views because there
was less migration. But in the time of globalization and concept of global
village; it is not possible for any society to sustain with particular or
limited specific practices or views, and so constitute a pluralist society. For
this pluralist society, people and society have to be tolerant and have
goodwill towards other views, faith and culture to maintain the brotherhood of
the society.
Over the period of time, it is seen that people are fighting
for their possessions; many a time they are intolerant towards other's culture,
language, food, belief and many such other things. In the view of creating
influence and hegemony, they start walking on the path of inhuman activities
like they threaten others, loot them, and kill them. They try to harm each
other to the extent they can. They fill their souls and hearts with negativity
for others. There are numerous examples of intolerance and un-acceptance. Here
are some examples
(a) Racial discrimination- black people are treated
in-humanitarian ways by white people across the globe.
(b) Intolerance towards ideology-like capitalism vs. communism,
Shia vs. Sunni, catholic vs. non catholic
(c) Intolerance of language-English vs. French, Hindi vs.
non Hindi in India.
(d) Intolerance of religion-rights between Islam and
Christian in Europe, Hindu and Islam in south Asia, Islam and Jews in Middle
East.
(e) Intolerance of cast- this was the problem especially in south Asia
region, where the upper cast became intolerant towards lower caste people.
There are various such examples of intolerance and lack of acceptance of the
people and society.
For the avoidance of clash between the people or group or
community every society must learn a bit of tolerance and acceptance towards
others. For any developed society tolerance is not the sole thing. Along with
tolerance there are also other pillars of pluralist society i.e. brother and
goodwill. By means of tolerance one can not only avoid the clash but the tool
of brotherhood and goodwill makes the society full of joy and happiness.
Brotherhood is not only about accepting others along with their thoughts,
belief and values, but it is also helping them during crisis in the best
possible way. This brotherhood comes from goodwill to do something good for
others and for society despite their differences.
In the context of Indian society, there is great diversity
across pan-India in terms of language, culture, beliefs, religion, cast,
practices and customs, Geography, History and Economics almost in every field.
This is the beauty of Indian pluralist society where people live together from
ancient time instead of huge diversity and differences. This makes India worlds
largest as well as longest pluralist society of the world. But there are also
few small cases where people become intolerant and do not show the brotherhood
and goodwill towards others values, belief and religion. The cases of
intolerance were rare or very few cases were found in ancient and in medieval
era. As British came in modern India they introduced the policy of divide and
rule and they sowed the seed of intolerance which led to the concept of
communalism in India. They introduced the concept of minority in religion.
Along with the problem of communism there are also few cases of lingual
intolerance like Hindi vs, other language, Guajarati vs. Marathi, hilly area and
plain area; racial intolerance like states of north-east vs. other main land of
India. But despite some differences and few cases of intolerance people are
living together from thousands of years. Indian society is very mature in
nature. Here people give more preference to goodwill, tolerance and brotherhood
over their personal faith, values and belief Indian society is therefore often symbolized
with the slogan- unity in diversity. That's why pluralism is not the weakness of
Indian society but it is the strength of the Indian society.
It is difficult to survive for any society or civilization
without these three values. Especially for a country like India where language,
customs, values and belief get changed at every mile. The tool of good will,
tolerance and brotherhood not only secure the survival or co-existence, of
pluralist society but it’s also needed to create good environment for living
where coming generation of society can learn and act for making better
tomorrow. The main goal of every human value, ideas, belief and other tools is
to make society better and suitable for life. Our experiences in life are
determined by the framework around our society. This framework thus needs to be
one such that inculcates positive attributes for nurturing our growth and
betterment. One cannot simply imagine living life without any interaction or
cooperation with the society. This interaction needs to involve goodwill for
development of good relationship on both ends. One can gain the trust and faith
of another person through the basic human tendency of doing well for others.
You just can't expect the society to be kind and helpful to you without your
positive contribution to it and its fellow beings. Our interaction with the
society should be such that it not just seeks personal gain and achievements;
but also hopes for and works towards the upliftment of the different elements
of the society. For this betterment of society, goodwill, tolerance and
brotherhood play very important role.
Selfish motives and hatred lead us nowhere, for once we
inculcate such negative feelings within us; we keep on digging potholes for our
detriment. A society is worth living only when garnered with the seeds of love,
belongingness, cooperation, brotherhood, selflessness and goodwill for each
other. A society where every individual sees his/her fellow compatriot as one's
relative; is a heavenly one to reside in. Our philosophy of "Vasudhaia
Kutumbakam" teaches us the same value and thence we emerge as one of the
most culturally grounded and diversified yet United Nations in the world.
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